


Anticipation

by lee_andrews



Series: Naruto Rare Ships Challenge [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Falling In Love, Humor, M/M, Painting and modelling, Sai makes penis comments, mentions of youth and icha icha, sort of domestic and soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:02:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25617790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lee_andrews/pseuds/lee_andrews
Summary: “Hello, Lee-kun,” Sai opened the door, his voice even and his face a picture of perfect calm. “Please, come in and get undressed.”_____________________________________Very mildly inspired by Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth episode 48, yet entirely different in tone. Takes place about a year or two after the 4th Shinobi War.
Relationships: Rock Lee/Sai
Series: Naruto Rare Ships Challenge [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1856938
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Anticipation

**Author's Note:**

> Rated mature for penis discussions, just in case. Otherwise, perfectly innocent.

Lee was not used to being admired. He’d been made fun of way too much in his life. Of course, he promised that it would not bother him, both to himself and to Gai-sensei, but in moments like these, his confidence betrayed him. Standing at Sai’s doorstep, Lee contemplated if this invitation had just been a cruel joke on his part, but then immediately pulled himself up. It was disgusting of him to let his own lack of self-confidence make him suspect a comrade like that! For this he would do three hundred, no, five hundred push-ups, or better yet…

“Hello, Lee-kun,” Sai opened the door, his voice even and his face a picture of perfect calm. “Please, come in and get undressed.”

Lee felt his face heat up at such direct words, yet he let himself be led into the living room full of drawing utensils, half-finished paintings of various sizes sitting on top of easels and framed pictures on the walls. Sai moved to finish organising his tools into a ready-to-work order and Lee, left to his own devices, slowly started taking his clothes off. With every piece neatly folded on a nearby chair, Lee felt more and more self-conscious. It wasn’t at all like the onsen or common showers on the training grounds. There, Lee knew, nobody ever cared, but here, he was going to be scrutinised, every little bit of him studied between Sai’s attentive black eyes and the strokes of his brush, every scar, every hair, every tan line, every bit of muscle. Suddenly, his body seemed all sharp angles, long unwieldy limbs with no grace to them. Why had he agreed to this in the first place? Oh right, fallen for Sai’s flattery when he’d approached Lee in the showers and told him that he was truly the Beautiful Green Wild Beast of Konoha, and that it was absolutely imperative that he modelled for one of Sai’s paintings. Except… Sai never flattered anyone, he called Sakura-san ugly and generally told people all sorts of weird things. Did he truly think Lee beautiful? Lee found it extremely hard to wrap his head around it. He called himself beautiful because it was his aspiration, the claim he would work hard to prove, not because he actually thought he was beautiful in the first place.

Having undressed all the way to his underwear, Lee sat down on the chair. His back was straight as an arrow and tense as a bowstring, his hands nervously fidgeting in his lap. He’d put on his plainest briefs for the occasion: dark green, no patterns. Lee thought it would be unfitting to wear any of his actual favourites: silly underwear with prints of animals or funny quotes he’d developed a fondness for in his teenage years.

“Please, take off your underwear, too, Lee-kun,” Sai’s voice startled Lee out of his thoughts. “I would like to paint you nude. Your penis is exceptional, it would be a waste not to.”

Did he just accidentally open a couple of gates? Lee found his body to be virtually on fire.

“Are you well, Lee-kun?” Sai bowed his head to the right, looking at the furiously blushing young man before him. “Crimson does not clash with the black of your hair, however, I find the normal colour of your skin more aesthetically appealing.”

“I-I-I… You cannot just say something like that, Sai-kun!” Lee finally managed to get some words out, jumping up from the chair and throwing his hands up in the air.

“Like what?” Sai blinked.

“That my pe…” Lee chocked on the word, but forced himself to pronounce it, “…nis is… what-whatever it is you said.”

“Exceptional?” Sai’s eyes darted for a split second to the subject of this conversation, still covered by dark green briefs.

“Yes, that! That is not a very appropriate thing to say!”

“Oh? And why not if it’s true? Isn’t that something you should be proud of?” Sai seemed genuinely baffled by Lee’s reaction. “In a book that I read, there was a man who was really pleased when complimented in a similar fashion. And I am sure your sensei would say that it’s a sign of your youthful virility.”

Lee really didn’t want to think about what Gai-sensei would say. In a desperate attempt to somehow make this conversation less awkward, he found himself asking, “What kind of book was that?”

“I borrowed it from Kakashi-senpai. A very curious piece of writing by one of the legendary Sannin.”

Oh great. Lee blushed even deeper and cringed really hard at the same time.

“I don’t understand,” Sai’s thoughts looped to his previous statement. “When I say the truth, people always get offended.”

There was a barely visible sad gleam in Sai’s eyes that horrified Lee. He obviously created a misunderstanding with his over-the-top reaction that hurt Sai and he needed to rectify that.

“That is not true! I mean, I did not get offended at your words, Sai-kun!” Lee exclaimed in his most passionate way. “I just got… embarrassed, because that is something you do not usually hear from people. I guess it is different from… complimenting one’s eyes or hair. One’s private parts are usually not talked about openly like that.”

Sai seemed to contemplate it for a moment.

“That is a societal norm that does not make any sense at all. There is nothing shameful about reproductive organs. Everyone has them in one way or the other. Why wouldn’t people talk about them?”

“I… suppose you are right,” Lee had to admit.

“Then you will undress for the painting?”

Lee took a deep breath and nodded determinedly. As soon as his briefs were off, Sai gestured him to the sofa and explained what position he should take. And so Lee was seated, leaning onto one of the armrests, left foot on the floor and right foot on the sofa, right elbow resting on the right knee and right hand propping up his chin, gaze wistfully into distance. Or, at least, Lee hoped that he gazed into distance wistfully enough. He was still trying to fight his embarrassment, though the fact that Sai hadn’t said a word since he’d gotten to work was helping a great deal. Lee concentrated his attention on simple breathing and meditation exercises. Contrary to popular belief, he was actually used to sitting still for long periods of time. Learning to open the Eight Gates required a lot of meditating and attending to your body, concentrating on sensations that would help you pinpoint the locations of the gates and obtain control over them.

How many hours had passed, Lee truly couldn’t say, but it must have been quite a bit, because he suddenly realised that the room got darker and Sai put down his brush and palette.

“This is it for today, Lee-kun,” Sai said. “Artificial lighting is, unfortunately, not suitable.”

Suddenly, Lee was aware of his nakedness again. The serenity he had managed to settle into during the painting session was gone in an instant. Sai was looking into his eyes, thankfully, but there was something unusual to his gaze Lee couldn’t quite identify.

“May I… see it? The painting.”

“There isn’t much painting to speak of yet,” Sai responded. “But yes, you may.”

Lee considered going to the chair his clothes were folded on and putting his underwear on first, but Sai was still looking at him with that strange gaze. Yet now it dawned on Lee what kind of emotion was hidden there: anticipation. Sai wanted Lee to show curiosity, for he was proud of his skill, but he didn’t want to boast or force it upon Lee, because it mattered. Unlike out-of-place comments about reproductive organs he would dish out onto pretty much anyone. And if it was that important to Sai, Lee wouldn’t want to leave him hanging. So he got up from the sofa and walked straight to the canvas, mentally reminding himself that nakedness was nothing shameful, just a natural display of youth.

What he saw on the canvas was the outline of his body in charcoal and some fragments of the sofa and the background in colour. And his body… it didn’t at all look like sharp angles and long unwieldy limbs with no grace to them. Even as a charcoal sketch, it looked… appreciated? The lines seemed tender, as if what was drawn were not the lines of his actual body, but the path of a hand that caressed it all over. And yet, it was unmistakeably him, even at this stage. Lee hadn’t had much experience with art before, but he was certainly fascinated now. Also, at a loss for words.

“It is… it is beautiful, Sai-kun!” oh how Lee wished he had Gai-sensei‘s youthful eloquence!

“You’re beautiful,” Sai said matter-of-factly.

It took Lee some time to process this, but before he could respond, Sai turned around to his table, dabbed with his finger at the yellow paint and turned back to face Lee. Enthralled, Lee watched as Sai’s hand moved up to his face, slowly. Usually, the world was only that slow once Lee would open the Gate of Pain. Eventually, Sai’s finger made contact with Lee’s skin, exactly over his cheekbone, and he drew what felt like a little sun there: a filled-in circle and five little lines coming from it all around. And Lee could feel its heat even once Sai’s touch was gone. Or maybe he was just blushing again. Or both.

“I need you to come here several more times, so that I can finish it.”

“Of course!” Lee found his ability to speak again. “Anytime you w-“

“Tomorrow,” Sai said hastily, his gaze full of anticipation.

“Of course!” Lee reiterated, his smile wide, all Nice Guy pose.

…At home, Lee couldn’t bring himself to wash his face. In the light of his bathroom lamp, the little yellow sun on his cheekbone was shining at him from his mirror and all he could do was grin back.


End file.
